Fifty years later, SAHS honors Murray High's state championship run

A little less than 50 years ago, buried in the middle of a Sunday edition of The St. Augustine Record, a sports brief read the following:

"Murray High Bulldogs win State Class 'A' Cage Championship."

What followed were two sentences that announced Murray's claiming of the 1964 Statewide Class A Negro High School Basketball championship and the specifics - a 78-72 win over West Palm Beach's Roosevelt High School.

Two sentences, no recap, no follow-up story to commemorate or honor a small-town champion of 13 local boys.

Fifty years later, the St. Augustine boys basketball team did its best to correct this glaring oversight. The Yellow Jackets invited all members of that team to get their fair recognition and impart some history onto today's team.

"The whole thing has been amazing. I'm so happy that my guys got to be a part of this night and learn from these Murray guys," Yellow Jackets coach Tim Winter said. "It was remarkable hearing their stories, talking about marching with Martin Luther King, and everything else they went through. We learned a tremendous amount from them in a very short period of time."

Five players from that team showed up. Many have died and some are scattered across the country, but those that made it were honored before St. Augustine played a home contest against Nease. Julius Cullar, Sharone Clarkson, Rocky Merrill, Willie Carl Davis and Ronald Kearse sat as the son of their deceased head coach, Malcom Jones, rattled off the history that few in the crowd could recall.

The history of the Murray High state title team, an all-black school, and the city's role in the civil rights movement are one. During their championship season, Coach Jones was out looking for his team only to find out they had been arrested and thrown in jail for protesting downtown. Their schoolbooks were secondhand and in tatters, and outside of their community, little attention was given to a team that routinely hit triple-digit scores.

Dealing with police dogs, Ku Klux Klan members and outright rejection from the community's perceived norm was their reality as high school ball players. But when they had a chance to meet the 2013-14 Yellow Jackets team on Thursday night for a dinner, they didn't dwell on what they overcame. Instead, they found common ground with kids half a century younger than them with old-fashioned basketball fundamentals.

And love.

"We got into the things that made a team a champion," Winter said. "It was really based on love, according to them. They said that they loved each other way before they ever won a championship. That's something I've been trying to instill with my guys."

The Yellow Jackets put on T-shirts commemorating the state title before the game. Each of the five Bulldogs in the attendance got the same shirt, much more than they ever got in recognition of their state title.

When Sharone Clarkson put on the shirt, he felt pride.

"When we won the title, all we got was a little basketball congratulating us," Clarkson said. "We didn't even get a shirt. It felt very good getting that shirt and feels good to be wearing it now."

Cullar, a guard on the 1964 team, watched some of the game before going home to observe the Sabbath. What he saw was a far cry from the hate and divisiveness that was established in the community at the time.

Black and white players playing together, working together, building off of each other's successes and lifting them from their mistakes.

"This is all I ever wanted to see. It's not a matter of skin," Cullar said. "I want to see unity and love throughout everybody, no matter what race they are. This is a beautiful thing."

The game itself might not have ended in storybook fashion for St. Augustine - Nease came away with a 69-48 road victory - but one loss won't ruin what that night meant for the players being honored and the crowd relearning some of the city's history. In a small way, Murray High finally got its due.

"This has been such a rewarding experience for me and all the guys," Cullar said. "I can see the changes happening and that have happened. I can see it."

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